Brandon LaBelle (USA) is an artist and writer working with sound and auditory issues. He is the author of Background Noise: Perspectives on Sound Art (Continuum 2006), and Professor at the Bergen National Academy of the Arts, Norway. http://www.errantbodies.org/labelle.html

Marcia Jane is a video and film artist based in Melbourne. Her interests lie in flickering, pulsating, rhythmic abstraction; and audio-visual sensory experiences. Marcia lectures in visual art at Swinburne University and studies at RMIT's School of Art. http://www.permutations.net

Philip Samartzis is an internationally acclaimed electro-acoustic maestro and teacher to many of Melbourne's most successful sound artists through his work at RMIT. His current practice is dominated by the use of field recordings as source material for sonic works. http://www.microphonics.org "one of the leading lights of Australian experimental music" Rare Frequency 2006

Bruce Mowson is a Melbourne-based sound and video artist. He has conducted research into the phenomenon of absorption in audio-visual media though a series of exhibitions and performances and teaches at RMIT University. http://www.brucemowson.com

James Hullick is an installation artist, composer, pianist and electro sound-artist. Hullick is also Artistic Director for JOLT. http://www.jameshullick.com "...a highly reduced transparent psychogram, that shocks as much as electrifies the listener" Reutlinger Nachrichten (S√ºdwestpresse) 2007

I visited the Sticky Institute in Melbourne yesterday and bought a few zines and recorded a video asking the team a few basic questions about zines. The store has a wide selection of zines, and there's a membership / mail list where you can sign up and receive zines in the mail. If you're a zine-writer, you can contact the store and have them stock your zines. Their website also includes an impressive "Zineopedia" of Melbourne based zines which is a great resource for anyone wanting to find out more about zines. Though the best way would be to visit the store if you're in Melbourne, their website if you're not in Melbourne, or a local zine-festival and buy & read some zines. Or even better, start your own!

One of the zines I bought was the "Anyone can.. " zine (anyone can make a zine) which launched the same day by the City Library Street Press. The City Library Street Press are quite active, having a few projects on the go and regular meetings at the library for zinesters and writers to get involved with. The "Anyone can.." zine also includes a MAP of Melbourne city showing writers & zinester spots of interest eg libraries, stores, artist spaces.

I haven't finished the book yet, but here's one passage about what a zine is [pg 11-12] :

"Personal zines do not share many of the characteristics of he texts that make up the bulk of sources studied in literary or cultural studies and, more specifically, scholarship on auto/biography. Of central importance to these non-traditional texts is the fact that sines are not mass-produced; they are not published by a professional publishing house, and thus not 'sanctioned as significant by [their] status as a mass produced commodity' (Huff 510). Moreover, zines are not easily available, do not participate in standardised modes of presentation and distribution, and are not well recognised within literary communities or among the reading (most commonly constituted as 'book-buying') public. Zines are homemade, ephermeral and amateur. They circulate among communities of readers through the mail, in out-of-the-way spaces, and are passed around hand-to-hand among social groups. They are also non-traditional because of the modes of emplotment that characterise them; in the case of personal zines, we find a unique mixture of established modes of life writing, such as the diary, alongside zine-specific narratives such as cut'n'paste collage. These material and textual idiosyncranasies challenge the literary critic to practise 'connected reading', which Gillian Whitlock describes as a practice which 'pulls at the loose threads of autobiography, and uses them to make sutures between, across and among autobiographical narratives' (Intimate Empire 204)".

I also like this definition by Richard A Stoddart and Teresa Kiser in Poletti's book [pg 27]"Zines are a written product of the human need for self-expression. Beyond that, zines are hard to define."

on page 7-8, Poletti gives Duncombe's list for a 'zine taxonomy'. I thought this was very similar to the original definitions of video blogs when they'd first started (video blogs came after zines of course!) - my attempt was this video blog mind map before I realised it was crazy to try and define all the combinations - a simple all encompassing definition of 'video on a blog' was more appropriate, and did it matter anyway.. every now and then the videoblogging list starts up a new 'what is a video blog' thread - I suppose it is the same for all sub-communities that are less commonly known / new. the response below also reminds me of the videoblogging list arguments towards a simpler definition (or no definition), and at least a step away from a taxonomy.

... "the collapse of Duncombe's taxonomy into 'the rest - a large category' underscores the futility of attempting to solidify or organise a definition of zines based on their content. As Kirsty Leishman argues: 'Duncombe's work reveals that zines are ill contained and thus it is useful because it relieves subsequent researchers from pursuing such an arduous, yet futile, endeavour'(7)."

The Parliament of NSW Indigenous Art Prize is a $20,000 acquisitive prize for Indigenous artists born in NSW and belonging to a NSW language group. Now in its third year, the Prize has been developed by the Parliament of New South Wales and Campbelltown Arts Centre, and receives support from Arts NSW. The regional tour, taking in Hawkesbury, Dubbo, Broken Hill, Griffith and Wagga Wagga, is coordinated by Museums and Galleries NSW.

The SALA-MANCA GROUP is a group of independent Jerusalem-based artists that creates in different fields: performance, video, installation & new media since 2000. Sala-manca's works deal with poetics of translation (cultural, mediatic and social), with textual, urban and net contexts and with the tensions between low tech and high tech aesthetics, as well as social and political issues.

I remember reading about Jane Siberry in Mondo 2000 sometime in the mid 90s and bought her albums "When I was a Boy" and "Maria" as well as the soundtrack for "Until the End of the World" which has a track of hers on it. I used to play "When I Was a Boy" on Sunday mornings whilst having brunch when I lived in Auchenflower. when I moved from that apartment my neighbour asked what was the beautiful music that I used to play on sundays, so I put him onto her sounds. around that time also, I was listening to a lot of Brian Eno, David Sylvian, Ryuichi Sakamoto and Laurie Anderson and others.

The Sunday Fair incorporates Zine Fair, Independent Music Labels Fair, Small Press and Independent Publishing Fair and the Makers Market. The Fair is part of This Is Not Art, an annual festival of independent, emerging & experimental arts & media.

The Fair will be held on Sunday 30th September between 12 and 6 under the trees of Newcastle's Civic Park. If you trade in zines, independent publications, records, CDs, art wearables, clothes, jewellery, badges, patches, posters, or anything funky cool and DIY and you want to share your work with thousands of other artists, creators, makers and interesting folk from across the country then the Makers Market
is for you.

ANAT is calling for applications from young and emerging practitioners working with distributed, portable, online, wearable, mobile and emerging platforms to undertake a three-month mentorship with an established practitioner of their choice.

Managed by ANAT, the mentorship is a part of the Australian Government's Young & Emerging Artists Initiative through the Australia Council, its arts funding and advisory body.

The mentorship provides an opportunity to explore new artistic directions, to expand technical skills and increase knowledge of networks, debates and business practice. Applicants are invited to select a mentor and develop a program of activity spanning a three-month period. The mentorship may be largely a program of skills, development however applicants are encouraged to explore programs which incorporates critical investigation and dialogue, business skills development as well as marketing and exhibition opportunities. Utilising emerging technologies the mentor may be accessed locally, nationally or internationally. Additionally the successful applicant will maintain a blog for the duration of the mentorship hosted on the ANAT server.

The second edition of the Streaming Festival ended on the 28th of October 2007.

The festival broadcasted four programs; documentary, fiction, animation and art plus three special programs.
Composed by the KAN festival was a special program presenting a select number of films including films from Agnieszka Smoczynska, Anna Maszczynska and Anna Pankiewicz.

Travelling KaleidoscopiK Candle Bonanza, or Damo as he is known by his friends has being hiding behind the scenes in Brisbane for longer than most of us have being listening. Specializing in light as an artistic medium, Damo started out by doing "cans" and "spots" for some of Brisbane's more rock and punk orientated bands before moving into rave and dance culture. Responsible for many shows at some of Brisbane's earliest "old school" parties, he programmed lights and rigged bank upon bank of strobe and other rave orientated effects at parties such as NASA, Creation, Adrenalin and Black Out at venues such as The Site, B.E.C (Nasa/Adrenalin) and The Roxy.